No leaning on its laurels for Athens
Ellie Evans explores a city known for its ancient knowledge that’s going green for the future
Athens is emerging as a key player in the international meetings industry, leveraging its prowess in a number of sectors to rise to sixth place in Europe and eighth worldwide in the 2021 ICCA rankings.
Medical associations are central to this success: September and October alone saw the city host conventions including the 26th Conference of the European Sleep Research Society, the European College of Veterinary Public Health's AGM & Annual Scientific Conference, the Academy of Dental Materials' 2022 Conference, and the 22nd International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH) European Regional Conference.
The Greek capital is home to world-renowned universities, faculties and research centres as well as leading industry clusters, allowing it to lean on strengths both old and new. The convention bureau highlights logistics and shipping, agri-food and nutrition and the blue economy (tied to the ocean and its ecosystem) along with health, health tourism and pharma, and culture and heritage as core industries, each with an active national and international network of industry associations.
Local academics, researchers and businesses add value to events, and they help to attract meetings to Athens, says the convention bureau, which has the environment, energy, technology and sports sectors on the radar for further development.
“Athens has a unique place in the world. Our city is a capital of global culture that has sparked curiosity and wonder for thousands of years. Visionary thinking is in our cultural DNA. We are home to vibrant academic and start-up ecosystems in life sciences, shipping, culture, and tourism technology. Now more than ever, Athens is a catalyst for commerce and a centre of learning.
“The meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions that we host in Athens are a core focus for the local tourism industry and a strategic priority for the City of Athens. It is part of our strategy to protect Athens’ cultural heritage and ensure sustainable growth.”
This includes a dramatic shift in the city’s image as a tourism destination from souvlaki to sustainability with the launch of a transformative strategy to revitalise every neighbourhood, meeting venue and cultural institution in Athens. Making sustainability part of daily life means investment in new infrastructure – including the first new parks in generations, green corridors, and bike paths.
Where to stay
There are 370 hotels to choose from in Athens - 698 across the wider Attica region - offering a total of nearly 22,000 rooms, many within walking distance of the Megaron centre. Some 34 new hotels have opened in the past two years, while others are undergoing renovations; the landmark Hilton Athens will reopen as a 280-room Conrad hotel in 2024 after a €130m refit.
The award-winning 563-room Athenaeum Intercontinental boasts the biggest column-free conference venue in Athens, for up to 1,500 people, among its 35 meeting spaces. The Radisson Blu Park Hotel, Athens features 160 rooms along with a rooftop restaurant-bar with stunning views of the city: the largest of its meeting rooms can host 400 theatre-style, while the coastal Plaza Resort Hotel offers the chance to mix business with pleasure – its pair of conference halls and seven smaller meeting rooms have great views of the sea and garden.
What’s new
The City of Athens is breathing new life into urban and public spaces throughout its 129 neighbourhoods. As part of a long-term effort to revitalise its infrastructure, projects range from the creation of pocket parks and the revival of water fountains to the installation of energy-efficient LED lighting – it is even restoring woodland on Lycabettus Hill, at the National Garden and on Strefi Hill in a bid to restore its urban lungs.
A new Archaeological Museum of Athens is planned at the site of Plato’s Academy and three new metro stations are set to open at the end of 2022 near the ferry terminal (the busiest in Europe) and in the port of Piraeus.
In addition, a scheme to improve pedestrian access which kicked off before the 2004 Olympics is finally being completed at Athens' historic Syntagma Square, along with the extension of walking paths between the Temple of Olympian Zeus to the Panathenaic Stadium.
"The meetings, conferences, and exhibitions that we host in Athens are a core focus for the local tourism industry and a strategic priority for the City of Athens. It is part of our strategy to protect Athens’ cultural heritage and ensure sustainable growth"
What they say
In July, the Megaron Athens International Conference Centre played host to the 44th Scientific Assembly of COSPAR (Committee on Space Research), bringing together some 2,100 delegates and 600 virtual participants in a seven-day conference that saw 145 scientific sessions and 1,200 hours of actual science split between 30 parallel session rooms.
Dr Manolis Georgoulis, chairman of the local organising committee, said it was a "challenging but ultimately successful endeavour" as "the community embraced the organisation’s vision of a hybrid meeting emphasising physical participation". Shortly after the congress, the entire scientific meeting content was made available online to all registered participants.
Attendees stayed at the nearby five-star Divani Caravel Hotel as "Athens became the world’s space capital for nine days... with the country tapping into its national pool of expertise in space research and technology and its broad diaspora that contributed greatly to building excitement for in-person conferences once again, even during the waning period of the Covid-19 pandemic."
Who to contact
Natasha Kefala
International Meetings Manager
This is Athens
Convention & Visitors Bureau
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